President of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, NIMN, Mr. Gani­yu Koledoye, has identified lack of proper marketing research by those who applied for small and medium enterprise loans as responsible for over 70 per cent of the failures.

The NIMN president who spoke to newsmen in Lagos re­cently said majority of those who applied for the loan did nothing or very little in the area of market research before they were given the loans, adding that nothing but failure should be the result of such lack of preparation in the area of key element in starting a business.

It would be recalled that the federal government had in 2013 earmarked about N220 billion for disbursement to small and medium enterprises in Nige­ria through the local banks. But investigations years later showed that most of those who benefited from the loan where not properly mentored on the need to develop proper market analysis to enable them break­through in the various areas of business.

“We want to inform Nige­rians that a proper market re­search and analysis is critical to empowering the small scale enterprises. It is not just about doling out money; they need to be taught on how to do proper market projections and what happens in the market place”.

He said the marketing insti­tute is concerned about such high failure rate in the SMEs, hence the need to bring togeth­er experts to brainstorm on it which form the focus of the in­stitutes 2015 Marketing Week scheduled for Enugu in Novem­ber.

The marketing week with the theme: Paradigm Shift in Nigeria’s Development equa­tion-The Role of Micro Market­ing as Catalyst for Establishing Enduring SMEs, according to the institute, is meant to x-ray the potentials SMEs and how to use marketing tools to enhance the effectiveness of businesses in Nigeria.

Other sub themes of the con­ference include, unlocking op­portunities for growth through proactive policies and regula­tions; integrating marketing concepts into entrepreneurship and SMEs; market5ing strate­gies for leveraging non oil re­sources for sustainable devel­opment and impact of digital marketing in emerging econo­mies.